Fostering the Facilitator: Promoting Clinical Educators' Interprofessional Education Facilitation Skills and Socialization Using Exclusively Online Learning.

Health professions educators can benefit from continuing education to more effectively facilitate interprofessional education (IPE) in clinical settings. Online learning formats enable broader participation and overcome barriers to in-person events, though few studies describe the most effective platforms and methods of online continuing education for this purpose. In the context of the COVID-19 pandemic, we developed a 6-week interactive online program implemented via an integrated online educational platform (OEP) to equip participants with knowledge and skills to better facilitate IPE in clinical settings.

Implementing Entrustable Professional Activities in Pediatric Fellowships: Facilitating the Process.

Background And Objectives: Entrustable professional activities (EPAs) will be used for initial certification by the American Board of Pediatrics by 2028. Less than half of pediatric fellowships currently use EPAs for assessment, yet all will need to adopt them. Our objectives were to identify facilitators and barriers to the implementation of EPAs to assess pediatric fellows and to determine fellowship program directors' (FPD) perceptions of EPAs and Milestones.

Relationship between epa level of supervision with their associated subcompetency milestone levels in pediatric fellow assessment.

Background: Entrustable Professional Activities (EPA) and competencies represent components of a competency-based education framework. EPAs are assessed based on the level of supervision (LOS) necessary to perform the activity safely and effectively. The broad competencies, broken down into narrower subcompetencies, are assessed using milestones, observable behaviors of one's abilities along a developmental spectrum.

In-Person Instruction and Educational Outcomes of K-8 Students During the COVID-19 Pandemic.

Objectives: Quantify the relationship between district policy permitting in-person instruction and educational outcomes during the 2020 to 2021 academic year for kindergarten through eighth grade students.

Methods: An ecological, repeated cross-sectional analysis of grade-level proficiency of students enrolled in public school districts in North Carolina (n = 115 school districts) was conducted. Univariate and multivariate analyses were performed to evaluate the association between the proportion of the school year a district spent in-person and 2020 to 2021 end-of-year student proficiency in the district.

School Masking Policies and Secondary SARS-CoV-2 Transmission.

Objectives: Throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, masking has been a widely used mitigation practice in kindergarten through 12th grade (K-12) school districts to limit within-school transmission. Prior studies attempting to quantify the impact of masking have assessed total cases within schools; however, the metric that more optimally defines effectiveness of mitigation practices is within-school transmission, or secondary cases. We estimated the impact of various masking practices on secondary transmission in a cohort of K-12 schools.

Fellow Entrustment for the Common Pediatric Subspecialty Entrustable Professional Activities Across Subspecialties.

Objective: To determine the relationship between level of supervision (LOS) ratings for the Common Pediatric Subspecialty Entrustable Professional Activities (EPAs) with their associated subcompetency milestones across subspecialties and by fellowship training year.

Methods: Clinical Competency Committees (CCCs) in 14 pediatric subspecialties submitted LOS ratings for 6 Common Subspecialty EPAs and subcompetency milestone levels mapped to these EPAs. We examined associations between these subcompetency milestone levels and LOS ratings across subspecialty training year by fitting per-EPA linear mixed effects models, regressing LOS rating on milestone level and on training year.

A School-Based SARS-CoV-2 Testing Program: Testing Uptake and Quarantine Length After In-School Exposures.

Objectives: Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2)-related quarantines, which are required after close contact with infected individuals, have substantially disrupted in-person education for kindergarten through 12th grade (K-12) students. In recent recommendations, shortened durations of quarantine are allowed if a negative SARS-CoV-2 test result is obtained at 5 to 7 days postexposure, but access to testing remains limited. We hypothesized that providing access to in-school SARS-CoV-2 testing postexposure would increase testing and reduce missed school days.

Secondary Transmission of COVID-19 in K-12 Schools: Findings From 2 States.

Objectives: We evaluated the impact of distancing practices on secondary transmission of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 and the degree of sports-associated secondary transmission across a large diverse cohort of schools during spring 2021.

Methods: Participating districts in North Carolina and Wisconsin and North Carolina charter schools offering in-person instruction between March 15, 2021 and June 25, 2021 reported on distancing policies, community- and school-acquired infections, quarantines, and infections associated with school-sponsored sports. We calculated the ratio of school-acquired to community-acquired infection, secondary attack rates, and the proportion of secondary transmission events associated with sports.

Achieving Entrustable Professional Activities During Fellowship.

Background And Objectives: Entrustable Professional Activities (EPAs) were developed to assess pediatric fellows. We previously showed that fellowship program directors (FPDs) may graduate fellows who still require supervision. How this compares with their expectations for entrustment of practicing subspecialists is unknown.

Incidence and Secondary Transmission of SARS-CoV-2 Infections in Schools.

Background: In an effort to mitigate the spread of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), North Carolina closed prekindergarten through grade 12 public schools to in-person instruction on March 14, 2020. On July 15, 2020, North Carolina's governor announced schools could open via remote learning or a hybrid model that combined in-person and remote instruction. In August 2020, 56 of 115 North Carolina school districts joined The ABC Science Collaborative (ABCs) to implement public health measures to prevent SARS-CoV-2 transmission and share lessons learned.

Agreement of Program Directors With Clinical Competency Committees for Fellow Entrustment.

Objectives: Fellowship program directors (FPD) and Clinical Competency Committees (CCCs) both assess fellow performance. We examined the association of entrustment levels determined by the FPD with those of the CCC for 6 common pediatric subspecialty entrustable professional activities (EPAs), hypothesizing there would be strong correlation and minimal bias between these raters.

Methods: The FPDs and CCCs separately assigned a level of supervision to each of their fellows for 6 common pediatric subspecialty EPAs.

Cultivating Research Skills During Clinical Training to Promote Pediatric-Scientist Development.

Physician-scientists represent a critical component of the biomedical and health research workforce. However, the proportion of physicians who spend a significant amount of effort on scientific research has declined over the past 40 years. This trend has been particularly noticeable in pediatrics despite recent scientific work revealing that early life influences, exposures, and health status play a significant role in lifelong health and disease.

Funding Sources and Perceived Financial Insecurity in Pediatric Subspecialty Fellowship Programs.

Objective: Shortages of pediatric subspecialists exist in many fields with insufficient recruitment of new fellows. The current system of funding graduate medical education is inadequate. We examined funding sources for trainee salary and educational expenses in pediatric fellowship programs, effects of funding constraints, and program characteristics associated with financial insecurity as reported by fellowship program directors (FPD).

Neutropenic enterocolitis (typhlitis) in a pediatric renal transplant patient. A case report and review of the literature.

NE (typhlitis) is a potentially life-threatening disease process characterized by bowel wall edema, ulceration, and hemorrhage in an immunosuppressed patient. We report a 15-year-old boy status post deceased donor renal transplantation who presented with fever, abdominal pain, and diarrhea. Laboratory studies revealed neutropenia 5 days prior to admission, and abdominal computed tomography revealed bowel wall thickening in the cecum consistent with NE.

Persistent and Prolonged Parvovirus B19 Viremia in a Pediatric Patient With Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia.

Parvovirus B19 is a small single-stranded DNA virus of the Parvoviridae family. Depending on host factors, it may produce a wide array of clinical disease states. Disease severity can range from self-limited to severe, requiring significant supportive care.

Can Tablet Computers Enhance Faculty Teaching?

Background: Learner benefits of tablet computer use have been demonstrated, yet there is little evidence regarding faculty tablet use for teaching.

Objective: Our study sought to determine if supplying faculty with tablet computers and peer mentoring provided benefits to learners and faculty beyond that of non-tablet-based teaching modalities.

Methods: We provided faculty with tablet computers and three 2-hour peer-mentoring workshops on tablet-based teaching.

Milestone-Based Assessments Are Superior to Likert-Type Assessments in Illustrating Trainee Progression.

Background: The Pediatrics Milestone Project uses behavioral anchors, narrative descriptions of observable behaviors, to describe learner progression through the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education competencies. Starting June 2014, pediatrics programs were required to submit milestone reports for their trainees semiannually. Likert-type scale assessment tools were not designed to inform milestone reporting, creating a challenge for Clinical Competency Committees.

Multicenter development, implementation, and patient safety impacts of a simulation-based module to teach handovers to pediatric residents.

Objective: Teaching and evaluation of handovers are important requirements of graduate medical education (GME), but well-defined and effective methods have not been clearly established. Case-based computer simulations provide potential methods to teach, evaluate, and practice handovers.

Methods: Case-based computer simulation modules were developed.

Using an innovative curriculum evaluation tool to inform program improvement: the clinical skills fair.

Background: Program evaluation is important for assessing the effectiveness of the residency curriculum. Limited resources are available, however, and curriculum evaluation processes must be sustainable and well integrated into program improvement efforts.

Intervention: We describe the pediatric Clinical Skills Fair, an innovative method for evaluating the effectiveness of residency curriculum through assessment of trainees in 2 domains: medical knowledge/patient care and procedure.

An innovative process for faculty development in residency training.

Background: For programs to accomplish the goals of the Accreditation Council of Graduate Medical Education (ACGME) Outcome Project, faculty must be trained to deliver and assess education that is level-specific, competency-based, standardized, integrated, and easily accessible.

Description: An innovative faculty development model that accomplishes these goals is described. This model trained faculty to analyze curricular needs and then to design, disseminate, and evaluate their curricula.

Do pediatric residents prefer interactive learning? Educational challenges in the duty hours era.

Background: The volume of information that physicians must learn is increasing; yet, trainee educational time is limited. Many experts propose using trainees' learning preferences to guide teaching. However, data regarding predominant learning preferences within pediatrics are limited.